


hopeless wanderer

by Heronfem



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 05:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14664594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heronfem/pseuds/Heronfem
Summary: A brief moment in time, and a proposal.





	hopeless wanderer

“Would you marry me, if I asked?”

They've been driving for a few hours now, heading south to warm beaches for the summer. Oikawa and Iwaizumi are asleep in the back, sprawled on top of each other and dead to the world. There's only the faintest music playing, just enough to keep it from silence. 

Issei doesn't like driving. He does like sitting in the front and watching the world rush past, Hanamaki's little beat up Honda hurtling down the road. The scenery is beautiful, mountains stretching up towards the sky and coated in rich green trees. They have time yet to discover it all, this beautiful island and all her wonders. They have time to walk down quiet hiking trails, and through busy streets, and savor all the individual tastes of the prefectures. And Issei has patience in spades. He can wait for an answer that may never come, but it's a question he needed to ask. He watches the world drift by, as if the car is sitting still and the world around them is turning instead. 

He waits.

The car is silent for a long time before Hanamaki says, “My sister told me something, once. She told me not to say yes to the first proposal I get.”

Issei turns to look at him. Sees the whiteness of his knuckles, where he grips the steering wheel. 

“People like big gestures,” Hanamaki continues. “Being shown off. Someone shouting from the rooftops that they love you, that you're worth it, that you're the best thing in the world as far as they're concerned. But that- that's not what love is. It's all the little things, day in and day out for years and years. It's the choices you make for each other, and with each other, and a balance between all the wild and strange things that happen. She told me to say no, because she knew I'd want to say yes. I want to, right now. I want- I want a lot, I want to throw myself into you and be yours until the end of time. But you and me- we're kids. We have whole lives ahead of us. The next four years- in four years, we're not going to be the same people sitting in this car. The people who walked out of Seijoh and the people who walk out of university are going to be completely different. And who knows how we'll change in that time?”

Issei watches him, drinking in the beauty of his face, the odd dots and freckles, the way he blinks a couple times to clear his eyes. The clench and release of his jaw. 

Issei has loved him for a long time. He's loved him for a very long time indeed, since that first day that Hanamaki laughed at his jokes and shot him that sly, wry smile and joked right back. They fell into each other with such ease, such happiness. Everything is easy, with Hanamaki. There's nothing in his life that doesn't feel better with him in it. 

Hanamaki seems like he has more to say, though, and Issei stays silent. The road rushes along.

“So no,” Hanamaki says at last, eyes fixed on the road. His voice trembles, as if this will be the straw that breaks the camels back. As if Issei wouldn't wait a thousand years or more just to have him with him. As if marriage were the end all be all. “I wouldn't marry you, if you asked. Not yet. But if you asked me to grow and change with you, every single day and every single moment over these next few years... that's something I'd say yes to. And at the end of those four years, maybe then.”

Issei reaches over, rests a hand on his tense leg. 

“Takahiro,” he says softly, and Hanamaki takes a shaky breath at the use of his given name. “Please grow with me, no matter where we are. And no matter how we change, please know that you have, and continue to be one of the greatest joys of my life. No matter if we get married or not.”

Hanamaki reaches down to take his hand, squeezing it so hard it feels like he'll lose circulation. 

“Yes,” Hanamaki says, his voice cracking. “Yes, I want to grow with you.”

Issei rests his head against the window, watching the scenery float by, and smiles to see Hajime's face gone soft with fondness in the rearview mirror, and Oikawa curled up tight against him with a gentle smile. Their hands rest on the console between them, fingers twined together and palms pressed against each other. It's a simple thing, but it feels as though it's tethering him to the ground, to the here-and-now. In this quiet car, as the road stretches out ahead, he finds that he breathes easier.

The world spins on and on, pulling them ever closer to the future.

**Author's Note:**

> Please do tell me what you thought! This was an experimental little piece. You can find me at heronfem or maneazu on tumblr.


End file.
